In Which:
There is a journey- Sakura diverts attention- Naruto arrives in Sound- Oorchimaru gets a shock.
The moon shone down in strange, flickering patches that slid over the forest floor. The thick canopy of trees concealed Naruto as he darted from branch to branch, little more than a rustle of leaves signifying his presence. When he moved, you saw a shift in the shadows. When he stopped, he wasn't there at all.
Naruto knew he was being overly cautious, but it was better suspicious than dead. Three days ago, he had been a Konoha ninja. Now, thanks to Sakura's cleverness and a little research into Konoha laws, he was completely seperate. They couldn't even send ANBU after him once they found out, because, after much debate, he and Sakura had secretly emancipated themselves using an archaic law about clanless ninja.
Then, just to ensure that the Hokage would have her hands completely tied, Naruto had given some very interesting documents to give to Iruka before she too disappeared. In the thin manila folder he had handed to her at their last meeting, were documents stating his resignation from Konoha's ninja forces, a copy of his emancipation, and a written letter renouncing his position as a citizen of Konoha.
It was now completely illegal for Tsunade to send anyone after him unless a mission was issued from outside the village. Luckly, Gaara was the only one who cared enough to do so. Naruto had, much to Sakura's horror, sent a message to Gaara explaining everything. His friend would reveal nothing.
Landing high in the branches of another tree, Naruto stopped. Crouching on a sturdy bough, he examined his surroundings. This'll do, he thought. Without removing any of his equipment, the blond curled up on the widest part of the branch, braced his back against the trunk, and went to sleep.
Most ninjas were in the habit of making a camp when they stopped for the night. Naruto found this stupid. Why set up a camp you'll only have to spend more time taking down when you could rest much more easily in some hidden nook and just eat an energy bar in the morning? Cooking, hunting, and cleaning up simply added time to a mission, and sometimes that wasn't something a ninja could afford.
So Naruto, quite comfortable on his high branch, slept until dawn.
Sakura looked about her tiny apartment, sun shining through the window, and sighed. A week ago, she had discreetly moved her things from her parent's home to this small apartment. She wasn't sure they had noticed yet. And did it matter? They saw so little of each other that it was doubtful they would think anything of it when they did find out.
She frowned, slightly worried. Had Naruto left yet? They had agreed that Naruto wouldn't tell her when he left so she had a better chance of acting properly surprised.
Oh well. Time to add to their little ploy. Sakura stripped off her pajamas, and donned a slightly rumpled shirt that didn't hang quite right and her most comfortable pants. She brushed most, but not all the knots from her hair, and didn't touch her usual makeup.
Then she rubbed vigorously at her eyes until a glance at her mirror showed her they were red-rimmed. She lowered her head slightly, hunched her shoulders, and shuffled out the door.
Ten minutes later, she stuck her brightest smile on her face, and ran to meet the other Rookies.
Ino frowned, and exchanged glances with the surrounding Rookies. Sakura, who was giggling at Lee's latest bid to win her heart, did not notice.
Sakura's smile was painfully false, her usually immaculate appearance slightly rumpled, and her whole posture screamed unhappy. Shinkamaru, with his quick eyes and quicker mind, had noticed first. He had leaned over, whispering into Ino's ear, and from her to the others the observations slowly made their circuit.
The Rookies were worried. Something was going on.
Ino could think of only one person who could put her in this state. To test her theory, she casually asked the other girl, " Hey, Forehead-girl! Have you seen Naruto?"
Sakura's brittle smile wilted around the edges. "Ah…yes. Earlier this morning. He's probably off training by now, though."
Ino's eyes narrowed slightly, and she glanced around to see the others had drawn the same conclusions she had. Another fight. Obviously seeing their silent communication, Sakura quickly broke away from the group, calling over her shoulder, " I should probably get training myself. See you guys later!"
She walked rapidly towards the forest, and was soon gone from sight.
Light played across Naruto's face, as he basked in the sun for a moment. With a reluctant sigh, he rose and checked the straps on his gear. Grabbing an energy bar to munch as he traveled, the boy crouched, leaped, and was on his way again.
Given the direction and speed he was traveling at, Naruto estimated he would be at the gates of Sound by late afternoon. He grinned. And, boy, are those Soundnins in for a surprise!
Sakura had at least another two days before people started wondering where he was. Once they thought to tell Sakura that he had disappeared, she would act surprised, then cynical. She would tell the Hokage that she had expected something like this, but hadn't expected it so soon. She would tell them she had had another fight with him, and that Naruto had let slip that he wanted to leave.
Then, after she had deflected any suspicions off of herself, she would leave his documents with Iruka along with her own. Naruto sighed. That was the only part he felt truly guilty about: leaving his dear sensei behind.
Naruto had hidden a letter explaining everything and the reasons for their departure wedged under a stone on top of the Hokage monument. Eventually, they would find it. And hopefully it would be enough.
Sabuka no Gaara leaned against the wall, reading Naruto's letter for the third time. His siblings were staring curiously at him, he knew, as was most of the council of Suna and the panting messenger who had brought the missive.
Slowly, ever so slowly, a smile stretched his lips. His eyes crinkled around the corners, his smile evolving into a grin. Then, to the shock of everyone in the room, he began to snicker quietly.
"Um…brother?" Temari's voice was hesitant and slightly fearful. Even though the people had slowly grown to like and trust the more emotional Gaara that had come back from the Chunnin exams, this much emotion was completely unexpected.
"Naruto …" The affection in the insomniac's voice was clear, "He's pulled the biggest prank that Konoha will ever see." The amusement in his voice blindsided the group.
The council of elders exchanged glances, wondering what, exactly, would make this prank entertaining to even Gaara. Temari reached for the letter, which her brother readily handed over, still smiling. With Kankuro looking over her shoulder, Temari read it.
Hey, Sandman!
Wanna know a secret? Well, you'd better, cause I'm telling you either way. So, you know Sasuke-bastard has gone and pulled a fast one, waltzing off with the stupid snake. (I mean, what's up with him? If he wants immortality so much, why is he wasting time with a stuck-up idiot?) Well, Sakura (the pink-haired one) and I have decided that since the bastard obviously can't take care of himself, we'd better follow him to Sound and make sure he doesn't do something stupid.
Wait, scratch that, he will anyways. So we're following him so he doesn't do something stupid without us to point and laugh (you know, to keep from inflating his already huge ego. I swear he lived alone in that district he owns because it's the only place with enough room for his pride!)
So, yeah. Sakura's arranged things so that it's impossible for obaa-chan to send people after us unless there's a non-Konoha person to give them a mission. Since you're the only person outside Konoha who knows anything about me, I thought I'd explain everything (well, mostly) before they roped you in.
Anyways, you don't need to worry about us being on opposite sides or anything, I'll make damn sure that the snake knows you and Temari and the facepainted wonder are off limits (don't ask how. You really don't want to know.)
Kay, well, gonna end this here (Sakura's hitting be and telling me to hurry up.) Oh! And I made some really awesome techniques! Come visit me at some point, we'll spar and show off to everyone! (You know, I'm actually glad I have the grumpy old furball in me now? Healing instantly is so nice!)
Anyways…Bye.
Your friend (and fellow kick-ass jinnchuriki),
Naruto.
Temari spluttered. "Grumpy old furball? He calls his demon a grumpy old furball?! No wonder you two get along! You're both crazy!" Gaara smirked at her.
"Says the girl who purposely makes it look like she grows pineapples in her hair." As one, the whole room gaped at him. He made a joke! He actually made a joke! Was the only thought in most of their heads.
Kankuro was the first to recover. "Well…this will certainly make Konoha's war with Sound interesting. Whatcha wanna bet the blond brat ends up either driving all of Sound insane or making friends with everyone?"
Gaara glanced at the letter, then at the confused faces of the council. "Three hundred on him stopping the war before it even gets started."
Miles away from both Suna and Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto had arrived at the Village of sound. The walls were manned by no less than eight jonnins, the gates were sturdy and thick, and it was clear that no amount of sneaking would allow him into the village unnoticed.
So he went with plan B.
Stepping into the middle of the road, completely visable, Naruto cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted at the ninja.
"Yo! Let me in! I need to see Oorchimaru!"
The jonnins stared. Naruto stared back, hands planted on his hips. The jonnins considered.
On one hand, the small blond had approached completely undetected, had escaped every trap set up in the forest, and was making absolutely no effort to hide exactly how much power he had. And boy, did he have a lot. It was practically rolling off him.
On the other, if they let the little ninja in, he might actually use that power.
Finally, Naruto got exasperated. "Augh! Fine! One of you people go tell either Oorchimaru or Kabuto that Uzumaki Naruto says that they signed themselves up for a three for one deal, and number two just arrived! And I'm not gonna try to take number one because he's a stubborn, stupid bastard and it'd never work anyways! Got that? Good! Now go find him!"
And with an annoyed huff, Naruto sat down in the middle of the road and waited.
The jonnin who had been persuaded to carry the blonde's message hurried towards Oorchimaru's office. He stopped for a long moment to catch his breath, and then knocked very quietly.
"Come in." Kabuto's voice. Good. That meant that the Snake summoner was in a good mood.
He took a deep breath, walked into the room, bowed, and relayed his message. "Oorchimaru-sama, there is a small blond ninja at the gates. He told us to tell you that Uzumaki Naruto says that you signed yourselves up for a three for one deal, and number two just arrived. And that he's not going to try to take number one because he's a stubborn, stupid bastard and it'd never work anyways. And then he sat down in the middle of the road." The jonnin chanced a glance towards the two.
He was met with two very surprised faces. Then Kabuto began to chuckle. "Well, Oorchimaru-sama, you have to admit he's got guts. And he is rather powerful. "
Oorchimaru's face grew thoughtful. "Hmmm…and he'd keep Sasuke-kun in line. Well, we'll see, won't we? This may be to our advantage. I wonder how he got away from Konoha without the hunter-nins dragging him back?"
"We'll find out soon, no doubt. Send him in, but make sure he has absolutely no contact with Uchida Sasuke. This will be an intriguing discussion, I believe."
The jonnin bowed, and left the room.
Back at the gate, Naruto had persuaded one of the rather bemused jonnin to come down off the wall. Currently, the two were on their third game of Xs and Os.
In the ten minutes since the other jonnin had left to take the news to their Kage, Naruto had struck up a conversation with each ninja in turn. All of them were confused. Usually, when a ninja appeared at the gates of Sound, they were either terrified or they postured to impress the guards.
Instead of doing the expected, Naruto had promptly started asking general questions about their village. In return, the ninja had found the little blond quite willing to answer any and all questions posed to him.
They now knew why Naruto had come, how he had gotten away, that he was an orphan, and that his favorite food was ramen.
The ninja playing Xs and Os with him finally asked a question Naruto was hesitant to answer. "So, how did it happen? How did your parents die?"
Naruto hesitated, wondering how much to tell them. Should he tell them about the seal? Why not? It's not like keeping it a secret did me any good in Konoha…Naruto thought. He took a deep breath.
"I don't know who my parents were, but they died when the Kyuubi attacked. All the villagers except for old man Ichiaru hate me too much to tell me anything anyways. See, the Kyuubi couldn't be killed, so they sealed it into a newborn baby. Me. Just my luck, too. The furball is always so grouchy. It can't get out, of course, but it wasn't too happy about me forcing it to give me chakra as rent."
The nins stared at him. "Rent?" one asked faintly.
"Well, yeah. It lives in my mind; so it's damn well gonna pay for the space. The upside to having the fuzzy homicidal maniac is the chakra and the fact that I can heal from pretty much anything overnight."
"Ah."
"I had it better than Gaara- he's the vessel for Shukuka- His seal was unstable, so his demon was whispering in the back of his mind, telling him to kill everyone, and between that and the fact he couldn't sleep without the demon taking over, he was pretty much as crazy as you can get. The seal's been repaired now, so he's actually pretty cool. We're friends."
Finallly, Naruto looked up at the jonnins. "You gonna run screaming or try to kill me now? 'Cause that would suck."
"No…"Said one jonnin. "No, I think you'll find that soundnin are more open-minded about that kind of thing. Most of us were missing-nins."
The others nodded in agreement. Naruto's face lit up, and he grinned. "Cool!"
Finally, the jonnin who had left to talk to Oorchimaru arrived. "Hey, brat. Oorchimaru-sama and Kabuto-san are waiting to see you."
The gate creaked open, and Naruto entered the village of Sound.
So...He's in Sound. Next chapter will include a full explanation of the plan Naruto and Sakura made, and a meeting with Sasuke. And, boy, will he be suprised...-Heliotropic